___ Item 2: GO SATC, GO!I've become really crabby about the hostility toward the series/movie/phenomenon of Sex and the City. It's just tiresome and dismaying (especially when voiced by a blogger I usually admire). As a late arrival to the SATC phenom (I'm a reluctant aficionado by marriage), I mostly liked the film. And seeing those strange creatures named Miranda and Samantha and Big up on the big screen started me to thinking of the whole SATC phenomenon as a fotonovela (a soap opera in comic strip form). Indeed, I'm now inclined to think of SATC as a fantasy serial franchise that shares more with The X-Men or Harry Potter than it does with some putative post-feminist lodestone of female consciousness from which dudes "might learn something". Indeed, the predisposition to critique SATC as "a beautiful lie" problematic for its shallow misrepresentations of real women -- a snap that snarked even the excellent "Vexed in the City" conversation over at Joe R's place -- seems proof positive of Rebecca Traister's excellent riff on the Emily Gould backlash. Traister writes, "Rather than being troubled by the fact that Gould -- or Bushnell, or Bradshaw, or whoever -- has the spotlight, why not question why so few other versions of femininity are allowed to share it?" All of which is to say, I'm thrilled for SATC's milestone success, in the hopes that MORE astonishingly unapologetic, similarly imperfect and comparably enthralling big-screen-event treatments of women's relationships might soon crowd the multiplexes the way such idiocies as Indiana Jones and Iron Man are wont to do.

___ Item 3: CHECK ME OUT!Comment on the above rant, if you wish, over at The Film Experience where I plan to soon post a variation of it in my capacity as one of the guestbloggers covering for Nathaniel as he's off to The Magic Kingdom.

___ Item 4: RIDE THE ROLLERCOASTER OF PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY!I'll be polling for a variety of things over the next week, starting with "The Overlooked - 1939" poll that's live now and shifting to the "Born in 1939" poll which'll start in the next day or so, before moving to the "Year for July" poll this weekend. So, lovely reader, vote early and vote often... ___ Item 5: NO, 1999's NOT OVER YET!The Smackdown for 1999 and all the profiles are finished, but I still owe y'all a profile for Lesley Manville in Topsy-Turvy, as well as my "Died in 1999" tribute to Betty Lou Gerson in One Hundred and One Dalmations. I's workin' on it, I promise, I's workin'...___ Item 6: GAY PRIDE MOVIE OF THE MONTH!As a recently installed member of the Large Ass Movie Blogs network, I found my interest piqued by LAMB's new "Movie of the Month" feature, in which all the blogs in the LAMB network are encouraged to screen a single film and offer comment on it. Being June and all, I'm thinking my suggestion should be for a "gay pride" movie, one suitable for the general readership/writership of the LAMB network. I'm not sure what to suggest. The call asks only that the movie be widely accessible (ie at Blockbuster) on dvd. And given that's there's little guarantee that my suggestion will be selected, I promise to do something StinkyLulu-ish on the movie you help me pick no matter what. So whaddaya think? What should I suggest to The LAMB as an appropriate Gay Pride Movie of the Month? (Share your brilliant thoughts and suggestions in comments...)

Lulu, my apologies for missing the Madeleine Kahn tribute. Her performance in Paper Moon is the best thing in the movie, I think (and I like the movie a lot) so I am sad I didn't have a chance to write about it. Unfortunately the weekend was all about the twins' birthday -- they would have it no other way.

"I'm now inclined to think of SATC as a fantasy serial franchise that shares more with The X-Men or Harry Potter than it does with some putative post-feminist lodestone of female consciousness from which dudes "might learn something"."

I really think you are on to something there. SATC wasn't for me (maybe because I had already lived my own version of it some time ago, and moved on) but the degree of hostility I am seeing has me a bit flummoxed. I mean, Glenn Kenny is one thing when he confesses he isn't interested -- that's me too. But some of the pieces I've read about it; gracious, it doesn't merit that kind of venom, does it?

I'm staring at a poster of Heavenly Creatures in my office right this second, so I can't think of a better flick for Gay prode month. Ain't nothing better than a pair of gigantic lips on screen (bad teeth included) mouthing the word "HOMOSEXUALITY" as if it's the most contagious disease ever. Plus: Kate! (And Melanie too, who I love.)